Deficit Is Nation's Biggest Challenge
Wisconsin State Journal
I was glad to see coverage of the problems associated with the federal deficit. Here are three points in response:
The writers who stated that the deficit may result in cutbacks in government services have it wrong. The deficit has already resulted in cutbacks in government services.
The war in Iraq is costing approximately $1 billion per week. Aside from the fact that this war is illegal, immoral and has resulted in countless deaths on both sides, perhaps it is time to observe that we can't afford it.
President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy simply do not make sense given this financial picture. We need capital to be invested in the infrastructure of this country - in jobs, education, housing, health care, etc. We do not need to provide more capital to wealthy people for second and third mansions in gated communities and whatever other luxuries they feel like indulging in.
- Jean McElhaney, Lone Rock
Dear Editor: I was honored to host the northern tour of the Camp Casey Caravan from Crawford, Texas, to Washington on Sunday at our Arlington Midwest Iraq Memorial in Lake Delton. The tour members had a packed rally in Madison at the Barrymore Theatre that night, and then they went on their way to Milwaukee and Chicago.
After an initial prayer, the members, representing Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and Iraq Veterans Against the War, all shared their stories with us. Then they read the names of the fallen soldiers from Wisconsin (44) and Illinois (76) whose crosses are set up at our memorial.
At the end two of the Gold Star Families put the names of their sons on our crosses and gave us a pair of Army boots worn by a soldier in Iraq. We played "Echo Taps" and lowered the flag to half-staff. There were not too many dry eyes among the attendees.
These folks have dedicated this part of their lives to stand up and represent their families and those of us who fervently believe there is no further point in our young people dying in Iraq and who wish to end the war now. These men and women and their families have been affected enormously by this war, certainly much more than most of us. They deserve to be heard and seen.
I was sad and frustrated that not one media member showed up at this event. I thought that Wisconsin Dells, Portage, Baraboo, Reedsburg, etc., would be very interested that the Camp Casey Tour was stopping in the Dells area. As noted above, most of their stops are in the big cities with huge crowds. And here we had them all to ourselves for an hour.
The local media missed a significant news event, and we missed our newspapers recording such an honor for our rural area.
What a shame.
Friday, September 9, 2005
Some of you may have seen coverage on TV last night of the step made at the Barrymore Theatre by a group Marty Preston calls the Camp Casey Caravan from Crawford to Congress.
That afternoon their bus bearing about 10 members of various groups such as Military Families Against the War made a side trip to visit the Midwest Arlington Memorial two blocks from the Delton Fire Station in Lake Delton.
Marty, a local peace activist you may see marching on the square in Baraboo sometimes accompanied by Burt Sylvander maker of the white crosses one sees entering the memorial grounds, introduced the group.
All had been deeply and personally affected by the current war in Iraq and had gone to Crawford to support the young mother who went down to confront President Bush asking "Why did my son die?" Some spent eight days there protesting and asking that our troops be pulled out as soon as possible and that this disastrous conflict not be our conflict on into eternity.
Al Sopora, a striking grey-haired lean man, was there with one of his sons. Another of his sons was what he considered to be mindlessly and needlessly killed in Baghdad in 2004.
A woman spoke of her son's belongings sent back after he had spent 284 days in combat and being killed.
Another lost her child and had great difficulty when her turn came to enunciate the names and ages of those Wisconsin and Illinois service people the crosses lying before us represented.
One whose husband was soon to be deployed said: "There often is about 12 inches of plywood between him and a suicide bomber."
A member of Veterans of the Iraq War who served two years and may be deployed again said: "I don't see an end in sight. 25,000 Iraqis have been killed and many more disfigured for life. There is no military solution to this war."
You may have seen Patrick Resta from Philadelphia being interviewed at the Barrymore Theatre event. Patrick is a medic trained at the Army Medic School and is representing the National Guard. "We are having to drive rescue vehicles from Philadelphia down to the New Orleans disaster area because the 7,000 National Guardsmen and women who should have been available down there are over in Iraq."
Hiroshi Kano lowered the flag to half-staff as the names of the dead were read. Crosses were presented to Al Sopora and Karen, who had lost her only son, to be left there at the Midwest Arlington. Al placed a pair of empty combat boots next to his cross representing the "empty lives left behind when people are killed in a war."
Burt Sylvander, maker of the crosses, is a Vietnam vet and has two grandsons currently serving. He's not anxious to have to make hundreds more of these crosses.
Three busloads of the protesters are driving across the country stopping in various places. If you watch the news, you may be able to follow their itinerary. They plan to participate in the rally in Washington D.C. Sept. 24 and 26.
We are somewhat paralyzed by the needs for help everywhere. For most of us, it's not an option to rush down to help. But we can give financially as much as we can and follow and support the progress of people like Marty Preston.
Myra Furse is a long-time Baraboo resident and local peace activist.
Please ask John Roberts how he would protect religious minorities, or the approximately 10 percent of the population of nonbelievers, from having their health care determined by those of other faiths. I am especially concerned about end of life care. Religious institutions vary regarding suffering.
A quick Internet search brought up the following: "Suffering is a fact of human life, and has special significance for the Christian as an opportunity to share in Christ's redemptive suffering" (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). This is not my view of suffering, nor was it my mother's, yet I had some difficulty ensuring that her living will was respected during her final illness.
Some specific questions: Do medical professionals have the right to refuse pain medicine to a patient if they fear the patient would take too much and end their life? Can care takers refuse to remove tubes providing water or nutrition? If doctors and pharmacists are protected from giving care and medicine contrary to their beliefs, what recourse does a patient have if the only hospital in town is Catholic?
I was forced to stand alone in third grade while everyone who went to church, Sunday school or synagogue sat down. What rights do minorities have to protect their children from being shamed for their beliefs?
We are an increasingly diverse country. The Founding Fathers believed in the separation of church and state because they were aware of the history of religious persecution in Europe. Robert's views on minority rights are crucial and should be carefully examined.
-- Peggy Wireman, Madison
Dear Editor: If you haven't heard the increasing dissatisfaction and frustration expressed by Jo(e) Q. Citizen recently about our government, you haven't been to enough pig roasts, corn boils, weddings or business meetings this summer.
The voice of the people, not the spin doctors' rhetoric, is what you'll hear at those gatherings, and it is the voice and the will of the people that will be heard at Fighting Bob Fest 4, Wisconsin's progressive chautauqua, Saturday at the Sauk County Fairgrounds in Baraboo.
There's power in numbers, and Fighting Bob Fest brings more people together than both the state Democratic and Republican conventions combined. Come and let your voice be heard. Make a difference.
Many of the progressive folks who attend Fighting Bob Fest consider themselves to be "politically homeless," and this Saturday they will gather together with Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens and people of all political stripes who wish to take back our democracy from the corrupt and monied political machine.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
By Steven Elbow The Capital Times
The father of a soldier killed in Iraq was among the first to sign a petition to bring military troops fighting the war there home as soon as possible.
"I'm here to speak for Mark because his voice was silenced on May 26," said Ray Maida, whose son, Mark Maida, was killed by a roadside bomb 30 miles south of Baghdad.
Maida was one of several activists speaking at a press conference Wednesday in front of the City-County Building to announce a ballot referendum that would ask Madison voters next spring if they want to bring U.S. military personnel home now.
The Bring Our Troops Home coalition, a wide-ranging group of nearly 30 political, labor, religious and community activist organizations, is pushing for the referendum, part of a statewide effort being coordinated in at least 12 counties.
The Wisconsin Green Party is spearheading the statewide effort and hopes to have similar measures on spring ballots in Milwaukee, Oshkosh, La Crosse, Green Bay, Racine and rural areas such as Sawyer, Polk and Rusk counties, as well as other locations.
"The idea is that come next April, not just Madison but many areas in the state will be voting on this," said Steve Burns of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and a member of the Four Lakes Green Party.
The referendum would give voters a chance to vote yes or no to the question: "Should the United States bring all military personnel home from Iraq now?"
Getting the question on the ballot would take 13,000 signatures in the next 60 days. The rally Wednesday kicked off the signature drive.
Volunteers will be on hand at other events, like the Farmers' Market and local street fairs, to collect signatures.
Burns said the signatures shouldn't be difficult to obtain. He pointed to the increasing casualty count in Iraq and the lack of National Guard troops available to respond to hurricane relief efforts as factors that are turning public opinion against the war.
"Events are really persuading people more than we are," he said.
A diverse collection of about 30 groups has stepped forward to support the referendum, including local churches, AFCME locals representing UW employees, Dane County Democrats, the South Central Federation of Labor, university and high school student activists, the Gray Panthers and others. State Reps. Mark Pocan and Spencer Black also have voiced support, as have City Council members Austin King and Brenda Konkel.
At the press conference, Maida said his son Mark was critical of the war effort. His last journal entry expressed anger at the loss of civilian and military lives in Iraq, people who wouldn't have died "if it hadn't been for the greed of the president and the vice president," Ray Maida said.
Mark's brother Chris Maida, a Marine who served in Iraq and who made it home safely early this year, also spoke.
Other speakers included Tony Castaneda, a radio show host on WORT who is a member of Military Families Speak Out, Bill Franks of the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council, and retired Methodist minister Cecil Findley.
"Our moral obligation is clear. It is to pull out and pull out now," said Castaneda, whose nephew and son served in Iraq.
Burns said organizers for the referendum have been working since spring, when anti-war efforts gained voter support in Vermont. He said he hopes Wisconsin's efforts will spread.
"We hope what we're doing here will really spark activity in other states," he said.
Grass-roots Activism Big Part Of Bob Fest
The Capital Times - Saturday, September 17, 2005
Judy Miner, WNPJ office coordinator, Madison
Dear Editor: The Cap Times did a good job reporting on the voices from the podium at Fighting Bob Fest this year. Russ Feingold, Gwen Moore and Mike McCabe did fire up the huge crowd of progressives with their inspirational words about hurricane relief, mistakes in Iraq, and the need for government reform. The rest of the story went unreported, however.
Bob Fest is a gathering of thousands of Wisconsin grass-roots activists who come to get some work done, not just listen to speeches.
A few yards away from the podium is the educational barn, packed with informational booths staffed by concerned citizens finding answers for those looking for ways to get involved: Family Farm Defenders gathering food and supplies for their relief trip to Louisiana; Peace North and Peace Action signing up people for their buses going out to the D.C. anti-war rally on Sept. 24; Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, watchdog to the munitions plant emissions, keeping our drinking water safe; Coalition for Wisconsin Health; Nukewatch; coalitions of groups working on local referendums to "bring the troops home now" and so many more.
This may be the real story -- the day-to-day work making this a more progressive state. Inspirational words are good. If you want to put words into action, look at the work of the 149 groups in the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, and join in.
Nuclear power is not emission free
Wisconsin State Journal - Sunday, Sept. 18, 2005
- Al Gedicks, Sociology Department, UW-La Crosse
Prof. Michael Corradini suggests that "a major commitment to nuclear power can significantly curb the buildup of carbon in the atmosphere." This is the latest spin by the nuclear industry, and it is false.
Proponents of nuclear power as emission-free energy fail to mention that without uranium there is no nuclear power. The mining, milling and enrichment of uranium into nuclear fuel are extremely energy-intensive and result in the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.
Nuclear power advocates try to create the illusion that it is the energy of the future so that all the costs and risks, including terrorist attack and nuclear waste disposal, can be loaded onto taxpayers.
Energy analyst Amory Lovins and The Rocky Mountain Institute have documented that on a worldwide basis, the decentralized, low or no-carbon sources of electricity are already bigger than nuclear power and will continue to leave nuclear power in the dust. In 2004 alone, cogeneration (producing electricity and useful heat together) and renewable sources (wind, biomass power, geothermal, small hydro, and solar) added 5.9 times as much net generating capacity and 2.9 times as much electricity as nuclear power did.
These sources can also deliver electricity at one-third the cost of a new nuclear plant and thus buy three times as much climate solution per dollar as spending the same dollar on the nuclear plant.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Almost 35 years ago, in the fall of 1970 when the United States was stuck in another "quagmire" war, The Capital Times published the following editorial under the headline, "Debra Sweet's act of courage":
"President Nixon heard the real voice of young America Thursday. It came from Debra Sweet, a 19-year-old Madison girl who was in the White House to accept a medal from the president for public service.
"As the president handed her the Young American medal, one of four handed out Thursday by Mr. Nixon, she said softly and unsmilingly, I find it hard to believe in your sincerity in giving out the awards until you get us out of Vietnam.'
"She spoke so softly that reporters could barely hear her remarks. The president, according to reports, was taken aback. To those Madisonians who know Miss Sweet, her courage in using her brief moment of glory with the chief executive is in keeping with her character.
"Miss Sweet spoke for all of America: the sore at heart; those overwhelmed with the frustrations of Vietnam, by the endless killing, by the power of the Pentagon, by the violence and futility of the Indochina conflict.
"But that soft, Midwestern accent spoke especially from the heart of young America. More than the adults, the young appear to have a clearer vision of the inexplicable harm the war is wreaking on this nation.
"What a courageous act. What dignity. She has earned the respect of millions of her peers and her elders. Miss Sweet has earned the right to another medal for bravery.
"A devoted member of the Midvale Community Lutheran Church, Miss Sweet is now working on special assignment with the youth action group of the church's Missouri Synod.
" She has the idealism of youth,' says her pastor, the Rev. Stanley Klyve. We salute her for this selfless idealism and her dedication to humanity."
Debra Sweet is older now. But she has not lost the idealism of youth.
Several years ago, as the Bush administration was banging the drums of war in Iraq, Sweet helped organize the national "Not in Our Name" movement. With advertisements and rallies -- including one in Madison that drew 2,000 people -- that movement proclaimed: "President Bush has declared: You're either with us or against us.' Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people. We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say NOT IN OUR NAME. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare."
The Not in Our Name movement helped signal to the world that the Bush administration did not speak for all Americans when the president ordered the invasion of Iraq, just as today's mass demonstrations in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and other cities will signal that tens of millions of Americans oppose the continued occupation of Iraq. There is no question that it is time to begin the process of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq -- both to save American lives and to allow Iraqis to begin the process of setting their own course in a manner that is free of foreign interference.
Unfortunately, one day of demonstrations will not be enough to end this war. So Debra Sweet is working to put more pressure on the president. She's the national coordinator of a new movement to challenge the Bush administration's policies not just on the war but on a broad range of international and domestic issues. The premise of the movement, which is described more fully at its Web site, www.worldcantwait.org, is that Americans need to organize to challenge not just the administration's policies but its legitimacy. It's a bold mission, to be sure. But, of course, Debra Sweet has always been bold when it comes to challenging the wrongdoing of presidents.
Not to be confused with vegetarians, who just abstain from eating meat, vegans won't eat any animal products, including dairy and cheese, and you won't find them wearing leather jackets or fur either.
"You don't need animal products to make great food. This bowl proves that meat doesn't have to be a chili staple," said Mark Dwyer, 34, a horticulturalist at Rotary Gardens in Janesville who scraped his bowl clean.
"I am here because I love the alliance and I come to all of their events," said Helene Dwyer, 64, a UW-Baraboo/Sauk County and UW-Richland philosophy professor.
WNPJ members turned out in large numbers for the September 24 United for Peace and Justice/International ANSWER rally in Washington DC. Almost a thousand Wisconsin residents went to the protest, many of them on buses chartered by WNPJ member organizations Peace Action (Milwaukee), Peace North (Hayward) and Stop the War (Madison).
Click on the links below to read more:
Friday, September 23, 2005
By Robert Imrie Associated Press
Some 700 people, including some from Madison, are signed up to ride buses from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C., for an anti-war rally Saturday to support bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq, organizers said Thursday.Mike Miles, a peace activist from Luck, said the rally is attracting people of all ages and is expected to draw one of the largest crowds ever to oppose a war. "There are some people who want the troops out immediately. There are some who are going to be calling for an exit strategy that might take a matter of months."
Peace Action Wisconsin has organized 14 buses that will leave today from Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee, Kenosha, Ashland, Wausau and Duluth, Minn., Miles said.
Pearla Moler, a 54-year-old artist from Waukesha, said she has never attended a rally in the nation's capital before but felt it was time to be courageous enough to lend her voice to the anti-war movement.
"We can stop this," she said. "We were misled into a war and the war was supposed to be over and it's not. We are spending billions of dollars in this war and we are not even safe at home."
Organizers hope the rally will attract at least 100,000 people, including Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who drew thousands to a protest she began outside President Bush's Texas ranch in August after her son was killed in Iraq last year.
Sheehan has been on a 25-state bus tour scheduled to end at the Washington march and concert featuring folk singer Joan Baez. She says she wants Bush to more fully justify the war and say what steps he will take to end it.
Rallies against the anti-war activists are also set for this weekend in Washington.
Miles and Moler said they expected news about Hurricane Rita, which was forecast to make landfall between Galveston, Texas, and western Louisiana by early Saturday, to overshadow the peace march.
But they said another natural disaster will also focus people's thinking on America's priorities.
"Hurricane Katrina has shown just how wrong our nation's priorities are," Miles said. "Resources that could have been used to save lives are instead tied up in a war that continues to kill Iraqis and U.S. servicepeople."
They weren't just going to school or a piano recital. Elena, 12, and Justin, 10, with their dad, Brad Barham, were boarding a bus to Washington, D.C., to show their opposition to the war in Iraq.
They, along with about 100 Madisonians boarding buses in front of Memorial Union, were on their way to join what's expected to be the largest anti-war protest in years.
Other local people were driving to the event and still others were flying.
More than 100,000 people, including about 600 from Wisconsin, are expected to join renowned anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan today, some of them staying on until Monday to take part in a day of civil disobedience.
Sheehan and about 300 supporters will march through Lafayette Square toward the White House until they are stopped or arrested at the police barriers.
Local protesters Janet Parker and Joy First of the nationally coordinated Iraq Pledge of Resistance, will join Sheehan, clergy members and military families in their march.
"We don't know what they're going to do," Parker said.
She's prepared, if necessary, to spend the night in jail.
The group plans to present President Bush with a document asking why the country is still at war, despite the fact that weapons of mass destruction, the original justification for the increasingly unpopular war, are nonexistent.
About 18 others staying for Monday's protest will gather to show their support.
"I'm not planning to get arrested," said Judy Miner of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, as she rounded up those staying until Monday. "I'm going in support of them."
Many of the local people headed for today's protest looked at their peace activism as a family affair.
Mary Barham, who's staying behind to care for her 7-year-old son, said her husband had organized 11 people to go on the trip - three dads and eight kids.
Her daughter, Elena, had been involved in a "Kids for Peace" protest on the State Capitol three years ago. "I'm so proud of her," Barham said.
And 10-year-old Justin said he was looking forward to the long bus trip and a long day of protest.
"I'm ready," he said. "It's going to make a difference."
Judy Landsman, 60, said she was going because of her grandchildren, 6-year-old Jake and 2-year-old Charlie, who were pictured on a placard she was carrying, along with her niece, 7-year-old Emma.
"I don't want to see perpetual war, and I don't want to see them go to war to kill and be killed," she said.
Lewis Hurd, a 15-year-old West High School student, was boarding a bus with his mom, Denise Hurd.
He said they decided to go after attending a Peace Coalition meeting about three weeks ago.
"My family has always been against this war, and we've always been left-wing and for peace," he said.
He said he was excited about the trip, and hoped the event would get media attention. But added, "I don't know exactly what to expect."
Josh Olson, a 21-year-old MATC student, had gone to Washington for the last large protest before the Iraq invasion. This time, however, he was worried that Hurricane Rita might take the wind out of media coverage of the event.
"I'm hoping it will be big," he said. "But I think the hurricane might divert some attention away from the protest."
*
Night-time rally: A rally and candlelight vigil were scheduled Friday night on UW Library Mall to support the Washington protest, and to support a local referendum to officially call for the return of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Steve Burns, of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, said as of Wednesday the referendum effort had garnered about 5,000 signatures, nearly a third of the 16,000 needed.
"It's only been a week, so it's going much better than we expected," he said.
He said he's confident the signatures will be obtained before the Nov. 4 deadline.
The Wisconsin Green Party is spearheading the statewide effort, and so far organizers in Door and Manitowoc counties and the city Oshkosh are pushing similar referendums. La Crosse is starting the referendum drive today with a rally in support of today's protest in Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee organizers plan to start gathering signatures soon.
Burns said the Madison group has enlisted about 200 people so far to circulate the petition, and that an untold number of people have gone to their Web site to download copies.
"We think there are a lot of people signing up friends and people at work," he said.
Efforts will continue at various local events, including the downtown Farmers' Market.
The Capital Times, Monday, September 26, 2005
By Steven Elbow
In Washington to protest against the Iraq war, Madison's Ray and Diane Maida say they were treated to an example of how President Bush just doesn't get it.
The Maidas, who lost their son Mark to a roadside bomb south of Baghdad last May, were standing outside the White House this morning when they saw a motorcade approach. The quickly donned T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of their dead son as an act of protest.
The president, spying the couple on the sidewalk from his limousine, smiled and waved.
"He was waving like a maniac," Ray Maida said. "He thought we were there to support him. He was clueless that we were there to show him the face of war."
While the Maidas were getting the presidential wave, more than 400 protesters were gathering in nearby churches preparing to march on the White House, with expectations of getting arrested.
"There's some really good energy," said Joy First, one of three Madison women taking part in today's act of civil disobedience. "I'm really excited, but a little nervous, too."
First, Janet Parker and Susan Spahn, and other activists including clergy members and families of war dead planned to march past the White House toward Lafayette Park, drop off lists of war dead with questions about why U.S. troops are still in Iraq, and request an audience with administration officials. Then they plan to march into restricted space and get arrested to draw attention to the cause.
"It's proceeding according to plan," said Parker, who planned to wear one of the Maidas' T-shirts.
The protesters today were still going through training on nonviolent arrest tactics in preparation for mass display of civil disobedience, which was surpassing expectations.
"The action's going to be enormous, so that's good," Parker said.
The protesters were buoyed by a counter-protest Saturday under a "Support the Troops" banner, which anti-war activists saw as a flop. Pro-administration activists were able to muster only about 200 people, while the anti-war forces staged a clamorous march of more than 100,000. Another pro-administration event Sunday drew about 1,000 people.
"We're not about to let them take the phrase "support the troops,'" Parker said. "We support the troops, too. We just want them alive."
Maida, a retired Madison police detective and Vietnam veteran who has recently gone public with his anti-war message ("Nightline" is expected to air a segment on the family in coming weeks) said the weekend was filled with emotion. He visited Camp Casey, the itinerant headquarters named for the dead son of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, where he talked with other parents who lost sons and daughters to the war.
He then marched in Saturday's protest, seeing a picture of his son hanging from a clothesline along with the nearly 2,000 other soldiers killed in the war.
"When I saw the picture I started crying," he said.
Like other military families during the march, the largest anti-war gathering since Vietnam, he and Diane carried a picture of his son and attached it to a fence facing the White House. He said the procession took hours to pass along the parade route.
The Maidas were joined by five of Mark's friends from Madison, who drove to Washington and marched while wearing the T-shirts with Mark's picture.
"It almost seems like they're downplaying it, but it was huge," he said.
\ E-mail: selbow@madison.com
The Capital Times
Monday, September 26, 2005
Heather Lee Schroeder Special to The Capital Times
No large public event can escape controversy, and this year's Wisconsin Book Festival is no exception. Some booksellers are complaining about what they view as preferential treatment being given to Borders Books.
Borders' corporate office donated $5,000 this year, and in return, manager Michael Chaim (Wisconsin Book Festival director Alison Jones Chaim's husband) was given first pick of the events at which his store would sell books. Bakopoulos stressed in a recent telephone interview that Borders did not demand the right, but rather it was given as a thank you for the company's corporate support.
Rainbow Booksellers Cooperative events manager Allen Ruff said that Borders getting first choice of events left little opportunity for Madison's independent booksellers. He characterizes what was left after Borders made its selection as dross: minor events without popular appeal. Rainbow chose to sell books at only one event.
He said that without a mix of big-name and smaller-name events at which to sell, independent bookstores have a hard time recovering the costs of staffing book tables at the festival.
"This Was An Unnatural Disaster"
The Capital Times :: METRO :: 1C
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
By Samara Kalk Derby The Capital Times
A group of local activists wants to keep the heat on the federal government for the devastation done to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast a month ago.
"This was an unnatural disaster," said Allen Ruff, a historian and peace activist.
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath were not just a failure of policy, but a structural abandonment, Ruff charged. And the abandonment is bipartisan, going back as far as the Carter administration, he added.
"The poor cost too much," he said. "So we abandon the inner cities, we abandon the schools. We abandon the hospitals. We dismantle the New Deal."
Ruff was among six members in a panel discussion, "The War at Home: Hurricane Katrina, Poverty and Racism," Tuesday evening at the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center on Madison's near east side. About 40 people attended the event sponsored by the Madison Area Peace Coalition.
Next to the organization's banner was a sign that read: "Disasters: 9-11, Iraq, Katrina, Bush Jr."
The panel included Sherri Wilder, a New Orleans evacuee and former Madison resident, and Mona Adams Winston, a local organizer whose 85-year-old father had to be evacuated from New Orleans along with 70 other family members.
Winston said she's been preparing her house in case any of her relatives want to come to Wisconsin, but no one's taken her up on it, "knowing what winters are like here," she said.
Her relatives with means, with cars, have been in touch, Winston said. She is still waiting to hear from some of the others, she said.
Winston didn't make any political statements about how Hurricane Katrina was handled, but Wilder, a onetime entertainment correspondent for The Capital Times, said that the bigger issues involve global warming, pollution and the destruction of coastal wetlands.
Her concern now is about how New Orleans will be rebuilt. Wilder asked: Will it be rebuilt as a great, rainbow city? Or will companies like Halliburton raze all the dwellings and put up prefab homes using underpaid labor?
Recent reports have indicated "things really weren't that bad," she said. "Personally, I think there's been a big cover-up."
Panelist Marc Rosenthal was one of eight area nurses who immediately went down to Covington, Slidell, Houma and other areas of Louisiana hardest hit by Katrina.
When he arrived at the processing area in Baton Rouge, he found the Red Cross providing not only shelter and food, but also health care, which it is as equipped to do as the local PTA, he quipped.
"There was no federal response and no local response. I can tell you that firsthand," said Rosenthal, a longtime emergency nurse and political activist.
"What we saw was complete and total institutional collapse," he said, adding that people were totally abandoned by their government.
During a question-and-answer session, Bill Hawkes, one of the founding members of the Madison Area Peace Coalition, said that the Bush administration is trying to shift the blame to the governor of Louisiana, the mayor of New Orleans and the city's police chief, Eddie Compass, who unexpectedly resigned Tuesday.
Hawkes took part in the anti-war rally over the weekend in Washington, D.C., where he passed out a couple hundred fliers he printed up. "Want Smaller Government?" they read. "Here's how it works in the Bush league: Bush wouldn't spend $200 million to fix the levees ($2 per U.S. household). Now he needs to spend $200 billion to fix the flood damage ($2,000 per U.S. household)."
Darrell Inda, who does heating and cooling work for a living and is not a member of the peace organization, took the microphone during the Q&A session to say that the United States government doesn't care about poor and working class people.
"It's class warfare. This country is run pretty much through fear and envy," he said.
As for the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, it was merely an early victim of class warfare, Inda said.
"Don't worry too much about New Orleans. It's just gone."
Tardy Work Called Breach Of Pact
The Capital Times Wednesday, September 28, 2005
By Judith Davidoff The Capital Times
The state Elections Board will be asked today to scrap its contract with the private contractor hired to create the state's first statewide voter registration list.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said they would ask Elections Board members who are meeting today to cancel their contract with Accenture LLP by declaring a material breach in the contract for missed deadlines.
"The state Elections Board has told us they will likely not meet the federal deadline required to have the statewide voter database in effect, thus jeopardizing tens of millions of dollars to Wisconsin," Pocan said in a news release. "We need to act now on the contract language which allows us to get compliance or cancel the contract. Continued foot dragging can be extremely costly to Wisconsin taxpayers."
Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state Elections Board, announced last week the state would not have its statewide voter registration system up and running by the federal deadline of Jan. 1, 2006, due to bugs in software developed by Accenture.
Kennedy said at the time he did not know whether the missed deadline would jeopardize any of the $50.4 million in federal funding the state received under the Help America Vote Act, which mandates that states create statewide voter lists.
Shane Falk, a member of the Wisconsin Elections Board, said there is little chance members would be convinced to end the contract with Accenture and start all over.
"If we cancelled the Accenture contract right now there is absolutely no way we can even have something in place for the November 2006 election," Falk said on Tuesday. "It's just absurd. If you look at how difficult it's been to just get this going, to start over from scratch would be just impossible."
Falk, who is also a member of the steering committee overseeing the statewide voter registration system project, said Accenture officials would be at the meeting to answer questions about the delays.
Falk said the major bugs reported last week have been corrected.
"We're testing it right now to test that that is true," Falk said.
Dear Editor:
I demonstrated against the Iraq war in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, along with 300,000 other Americans. I want to put this country back into the hands of men and women who are dedicated to serving the American people instead of themselves.
This war is against the law. President Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction, and thousands have died, mostly innocent women and children. President Clinton was almost impeached for a lot less.
If people like me don't speak out about the war, we are going to lose the ideals of peace and justice that our country was founded on. The present administration does not care for the average American. They give tax cuts to the "haves and have-mores" and send our children to fight their war. Their greed for oil profits isn't worth the destruction of our democracy or the destruction of Iraq.
It's time to speak up before it is too late.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Beryl Gribbon Fago Evansville
Dear Editor: I demonstrated against the Iraq war in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, along with 300,000 other Americans. I want to put this country back into the hands of men and women who are dedicated to serving the American people instead of themselves.
This war is against the law. President Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction, and thousands have died, mostly innocent women and children. President Clinton was almost impeached for a lot less.
If people like me don't speak out about the war, we are going to lose the ideals of peace and justice that our country was founded on. The present administration does not care for the average American. They give tax cuts to the "haves and have-mores" and send our children to fight their war. Their greed for oil profits isn't worth the destruction of our democracy or the destruction of Iraq.
It's time to speak up before it is too late.